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- A Young Man Comes to London by Michael Arlen
A Young Man Comes to London by Michael Arlen
ARLEN, Michael; BEATON, Cecil (Illus.) A Young Man Comes to London: an original short story. London: Marshalsea Press, [c.1932]
Arlen’s story is accompanied by 3 pieces on the Dorchester Hotel: ‘A Brief History of a New Enterprise’ by Sir Francis Towle; ‘An Architect’s Problem – How it Was Solved’ by Professor C.H. Reilly; and ‘Some Facts and Figures about the Dorchester’ by Sir Malcolm McAlpine.
Handsomely bound in patterned cloth, this beautifully produced book was issued as a souvenir of the opening of the Dorchester Hotel, London. The hotel is mentioned in Arlen’s story when one of the characters, the down and out 13th viscount Rockneil, notorious around Mayfair for not paying his bills, tries his luck at the Dorchester on the hotel’s opening night (18 April 1931).
48 pp; b/w illustrations by Cecil Beaton accompanying Michael Arlen’s story; 6 folding colour plates of the Dorchester; full-page advertisements following each of the four pieces. 4to (26x21cm), original publisher's decorated cloth, matching endpapers. Pictorial title label to front board. Spine faded. Occasional light foxing. Binding just starting. A fun and attractive book.
Michael Arlen (1895-1956) was a best-selling novelist, one of the finest chroniclers of Jazz Age notable for his portrayal of the glamorous and decadent world of the Young Bright Things.